The Hallway Monster.

[Grace]

I'm sure it will come as no shock to most of you that I work around high rises quite a bit.

When I was a child, I lived in one for a bit. Da found the location useful for awhile.

And as a child I used to believe that there was a monster stalking the hallways, most especially the stairwells. The elevators and the elevator lobbies were the safe places in my childish mind.

I never saw this monster but I knew what it looked like. I even drew pictures of it. Even to this day when I close my eyes I can still imagine it. Not unlike a person, mostly bald with some scraggly white hair rimming the bottom of its skull. It's mouth and nose protruded much like an apes... really, like those old Planet of the Apes costumes. It was tall, at least from a childs perspective with unusually long, spindly arms. It wore simple grey clothes, to better blend in with the cement of the staircases at the ends of the buildings.

Until this day, I never told an adult about it. I did tell some of the other kids about it though. One of the older kids told me that it actually lived across the road, in an undeveloped plot of land, in an old silo. The adults all told us to stay well away from that silo. Apparently some little girl had gone in there years before and succumbed to fumes borne of rotten corn and vegetable matter and died.

By the time I was a teenager, I was much more wise in the ways of the world and was convinced that it was all the fanciful imaginations of children. Never thought of it again until recently when I was again in that old neighborhood. The high rises are still there but that old plot and silo aren't. They've been developed and are now a mall surrounded by condo's.

Not a lot of children in the neighborhood though.

[Lord Shakar]

Hmmm sounds interesting but not something that I have encountered before given the description you have given myself. But then again the creatures I regularly encounter aren't native to Earth.

[Willie Long]

The high rises are still there but that old plot and silo aren't. They've been developed and are now a mall surrounded by condo's.

Not a lot of children in the neighborhood though.

There are a lot more hiding spaces in a mall and condos than a grain silo. I'm just sayin'.

[Clarity]

_____Did anyone ever see it, Mr. Nemesis? Or could anyone else describe it without seeing it?

[Grace]

Miss Grace, I can't really say with certianty.

While I do recall discussing it with the other kids, I don't think I ever asked them if they saw it or to describe. Perhaps I felt it unnecessary after describing it and having someone else (another child) speak authoritively on where it lived.

Looking back on what I've just written I realize just how silly all this actually is. Just the over-active imagination of a child who then had that imagination further fueled by other bored children.

That is the simplist and easiet explanation.

[Willie Long]

Simple and easy explainations can still be wrong.

*********

Lots of things we do are silly. Pooling information to better understand our world isn't one of them. I'm glad you told us about this.

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

I agree with Long, here. The simplest explanation isn't always the most accurate. After all, the simplest explanation for seeing the big Lazlo logo with the lighthouse at the top of my computer screen is one of you wizards painting it and then animating it with magic.

[Grace]

I take it from your posts, Mr. Ash-Shaytan, that you are a fan of Hanlon's Razor?

Hanlon's Razor: ``Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity''.

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

If I were any more paranoid, I'd think that was an insult aimed at me, Nemesis.

But no, I'm not. Rather, I'm a fan of pointing out fallacies in various modes of thought. And in this case, Ockham's razor.

It may have been your imagination. That's my thought. It might not have been. Imagination is certainly the easiest explanation, at least. When was the last time you were there?

[Grace]

Mr. Ash-Shaytan,

You would have to paranoid indeed to think that I was insulting you. I am a fan of Hanlon's razor so it would be no insult to suggest that it also appeals to you.

As for when I was last there, it was in passing relatively recently. I'll say in the last six months or so. No, I didn't see it again but I wasn't looking either. Before that was when I was very little--pre-teen at least.

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

I might just have to look into this "Hanlon's razor."

Thanks for the tip.

[Debunker]

Miss Grace, I can't really say with certianty.

While I do recall discussing it with the other kids, I don't think I ever asked them if they saw it or to describe. Perhaps I felt it unnecessary after describing it and having someone else (another child) speak authoritively on where it lived.

Looking back on what I've just written I realize just how silly all this actually is. Just the over-active imagination of a child who then had that imagination further fueled by other bored children.

That is the simplist and easiet explanation.

I commend you for having the courage to realize and admit that this is all a matter of an overactive imagination. There are many visitors here who lack this realization and could take a page from you.

[Tabloid Hound]

I might just have to look into this "Hanlon's razor."

Thanks for the tip.

Hanlon's has also been worded as: Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice. Robert Hanlon is an interesting being, almost as much as this Hallway Monster of yours.

That being siad, your not the first to report such a creature. there are reports like this that pop up all over the globe now and again.

[Huntress]

Ya know boys, this can be solved by walking through the mall with a good crowbar and a bad attitude. Perhaps even do a little shopping while your there (now that's multi tasking!)

Does this mall have a Victoria's Secret by chance?

[Grace]

A bad attitude and a crow bar are sure to be noticed by mall security. Not exactly something I would relish, Huntress (nice nom de garre, BTW).

I'm not really sure what the mall has in it, I never stopped in. It had a grocery store, that much I remember. All painted green. Stands out in my memory a bit.

I wasn't aware that similar creatures had been previously reported, Tabloid Hound. I don't suppose you could point me to some links to check up on, for curiousities sake?

Debunker, if I'd ever seen this thing in person I might be more inclined to believe in it... but really the only place it existed was my imagination. A, what do you call it? Animophition of an unnamed fear of the stairwells.

It's odd that this particular high rise is the only place that I ever felt such a fear.

Maybe I should go back and confront this unknown fear.

[Clarity]

_____Maybe you can talk to the other kids who you described it to, Mr. Nemesis. Maybe they knew what it looked like also, but were just too afraid to say anything? Anyway, I hope you have some good luck with it.
_____P.S. Miss Huntress, how would a bad attitude help?

[biggie]

i don't now how it can relate but i've been having dreams of a similar creature,

the face and stuff,as you described it,look just alike...
but the cloths were different...
its were black,almost like a cloak.

but i've just now recently had it do a physical manifestation...
this is because i brought it back up,and started asking questions...

to prevent any of this to happen to yourself,
try either getting rid of it,
or block it away and forget it...

because if the apparition you speak of is anything like mine.
the more thought you put into it,the stronger it will become...

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

And you guys wonder why there are skeptics like me out there that think you guys are a bunch of attention-starved nutters who eats violence up for breakfast?

[Grace]

Miss Grace,

I don't even remember the names of the other children, it was so long ago.

And even if I did, I wouldn't want to contact anyone from my past. Odds are good that they don't remember me and that's how I like it. Approaching kids that live in the area now might be problematic as well.

In anycase, I expect to go to the old neighborhood, stroll around a bit and find nothing at all of consequence. Then I'll be laugh at how silly I was as a kid.

biggie,

It is often a truism that the more thought and worry you put into anxieties, the bigger and harder to deal with they become.

Mr. Ash-Shaytan,

I can't speak for others but I find the attention of others to be uncomfortable, at best.

As for violence... I like to wink and smile when I work. Though rarely on an empty stomache.

[biggie]

well,nemesis
that is true...
but i meant it very literally...

it got strong enough to hold me down in the material plane...

have you ever had a history of night terrors?

[Grace]

well,nemesis
that is true...
but i meant it very literally...

it got strong enough to hold me down in the material plane...

have you ever had a history of night terrors?

No. I sleep very well at night.

[biggie]

in that case,it is probably not related...

but i'll keep a watchful eye on anything that fits that description

[A. Pendragon]

well,nemesis
that is true...
but i meant it very literally...

it got strong enough to hold me down in the material plane...

have you ever had a history of night terrors?

Actually, I do suffer from night terrors quite often. Too often to be exact.

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

well,nemesis
that is true...
but i meant it very literally...

it got strong enough to hold me down in the material plane...

have you ever had a history of night terrors?

Actually, I do suffer from night terrors quite often. Too often to be exact.

Related to PTSD, perhaps?

[A. Pendragon]

well,nemesis
that is true...
but i meant it very literally...

it got strong enough to hold me down in the material plane...

have you ever had a history of night terrors?

Actually, I do suffer from night terrors quite often. Too often to be exact.

Related to PTSD, perhaps?

I have had them since I was a young child. Disappeared as an adult, but they seem to have come back every now and then.

[Grace]

I'm in, way over my head.

I went back to the old neighborhood because I just couldn't let this rest. It was possible, however remotely, that something or someone was preying on children. That bothered me, just a bit.

First place I went to was the mall where the old silo used to be. It really was just an ordinary mall so far as I could tell. Not that I was expecting any different.

After the mall, I wandered the residential area for awhile. I counted no less than six posters for missing cats and dogs. That, in itself isn't too surprising. An animal gets out in the winter, it can freeze to death or get hit by a car that just couldn't stop in time.

I stop in at the old corner store. I played my first arcade game there. It was all so... nostalgic. There's no arcade games there now, though. I bought some smokes and moved on.

Darkness had fallen by the time I made it back to the building complex where I used to live. There were three buildings as part of this complex, all 40 stories high. There's a second complex of two buildings nearby. They're newer, weren't there when I was a kid. I decide to bypass my old home for now and go into the newer buildings.

They have controlled access but that's no problem for someone like me. Some careful timing and an honest smile while I fumble for some keys and some helpful soul has let me in. It never ceases to amaze me how people bypass the security measures put in for their own safety.

These buildings are newer but not well kept. The carpet smells of animal urine as I stroll down the halls. Purposely I walk to the end of the hall to where the stairwells are.

Immediately it hits me as I open the door to the stairwell. The smell. How could I have forgotten that smell? It's exactly the same as the one I remember from the building I grew up in. Is it some sort of chemical cleaner?

I climb the thirty stories that this building has. I have goose bumps and the smell is obnoxious. The primal part of my mind keeps telling me to run. But there's no rational justification for it. And for all that anxiety, I make it to the top. Then I cross over to the other end of the building and repeat the process going down the stairs. By the time I'm at the bottom, I have my anxiety under control.

I repeat the process at the other building of that complex and by the end of that, I have my nerve back. Though that smell still causes goosebumps.

Into the building of my former home I go. They've changed the carpet since I last lived here. Heard they had a fire in one of the groundfloor apartments after we moved out. A little boy died in the blaze. Unfortunate, but it happens.

Finally I make it to the stairwell. The smell is much stronger here. I start to climb up.

Somewhere between the second and third floor I hear a voice in my head. "Welcome home, Nemesis*" it says. Immediately I feel dizzy. My flight instinct is kicking into overdrive.

I do manage one coherent thought. "How does it know my name?"

"I remember you, Nemesis." It says. I look around frantically but see no one else on the stairs. Desperately I clutch onto the railing. Is this what it's like to be on drugs? I don't know, I've never done 'em.

Suddenly I'm a child again. Alone and afraid. I just want my Da. I close my eyes and try to concentrate and to cut through the fuzz in my mind. I can hear foot steps above me. I force my feet to move and I run down to the next landing and through the door.

The smell clings to me but starts fading immediately. I don't look back. I know it's there. For some reason it doesn't come into the hallway proper. And I remember it's weakness. The elevator. I jam my finger at the button and wait impatiently for the doors to open. When they do, I dive in. They close and I feel releif as I collapse onto the small square floor.

I don't know how long I just lay there. But I did finally get up and look at the panel of buttons showing me my options. My finger hovers over the ground floor button before finally rising to hit the top floor button. As the carriage rises, I idly notice that the building included the 13th floor.

Disclaimer: Naturally, this and all other stories told here are fiction. Their intent is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a trained assassin and the only thing that goes bump in the night is your cat.

*It didn't call me Nemesis, it used my real name. My full real name. I was still using my real first name when I lived in these buildings but my dad had me changing last names everytime we moved by that point already.

[Deacon Ash-Shaytan]

Looking back on what I've just written I realize just how silly all this actually is. Just the over-active imagination of a child who then had that imagination further fueled by other bored children.

That is the simplist and easiet explanation.

Hope you're having fun writing the story, Nemesis. Very entertaining.

[Grace]

So very glad you're amused, Mr. Ash-Shaytan.

Anyway, sorry for cutting things in two but I had a massive headache that is only now fading away.

I went to the top floor and for some reason I still can't define decided to descend the same stairwell I had just fled. The smell was still there, of course.

"Back again, Nemesis?" The voice in my head asked. Below me I could hear something stir and begin to walk up the stairs.

"I'm not running away again." I think. "I'm not afraid."

"I'm not convinced." Comes the mental reply. The foot steps are getting closer as we make our way towards each other. The smell is burning my nostrils.

The image comes to my mind. I've never seen this creature but I can see it clearly in my minds eye. It seems freightening at first. Those teeth are so large and those claws seem so sharp. And gnashy.

I get dizzy and again lean against the rail for support. Looking down I can see a hand rest on a rail several stories below me. It's bony and it's fingernails are like talons. It's all I see and is the first time I've ever laid eyes on any part of it...

Startled, I recoil and stumble back against the wall. "It's REAL!" my mind shouts at me. "RUN, YOU FOOL!"

Drawing my pistol from my holster, I steel my nerves against the fear. I'm a trained killer. People fear me. I'm the monster here and whatever it is down there is going to regret crossing paths with me.

Each step is an act of will but I do finally find myself at a top landing. I can hear it coming up and around to the landing below me. I ready myself. First I see the hand sliding up the railing. There is some sparse white hair on the forearm as it too comes into view.

Again I quell the urge to panic and run as the rest of it comes into view. It's on the landing below me now and in plain sight. Sparse hair rings it's head. All white and unkepmt. It's skin is greyish. It almost seems to almost want to blend into the concrete around us. It wears a simple short sleeved, pull over shirt that is also grey. It's pants are too short for it, coming down only to mid-calve. Nothing hides it's feet or the hediously deformed yellow toe nails that curl down and scrap against the stone floor.

"My, how you've grown, Nemesis." It sneers at me but it doesn't speak out loud. Is this what you ESP types do to people? Damn, it's creepy! "You should probably run now."

"No." I say defiantly as I raise my silenced pistol. "I don't run anymore."

Just then, the whole world seems to shift wildly to the right and up while I seem to stay in one place. It's as though the carpet has been pulled out from under me. My shot goes wild and misses completely. ME, missing! And at that range! Da would have beaten me for wasting a bullet like that.

It's laughter fills the stairwell as it starts to run up at me. I seem to be seeing two, then three then four of him. "Come to Uncle Cain, child!"

I fill the air in front of me with lead. Mr Caliburn has often preached the merits of the 9mm for it's higher payload. I've always preferred acccuracy with a larger cartridge. As the upper reciever slid back for the last time on my pistol, I was genuinely wishing for more rounds over bigger ones.

One of the rounds was lucky though. It scored a hit across the creatures thigh. It howled in pain and clutched at the red ichor oozing from the wound. Then it lurched away, fleeing down the stairs.

My hands were shaky as I reloaded. It took much longer than it should have and I kept having to push through the fog in my mind to focus. I don't know how long I lay on that landing before my head cleared enough for me to start gathering my casings. The damn bullets themselves were everywhere, lodged into the stairs and the walls... at least three I couldn't account for. That's never good. And there was blood everywhere.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.

Way too much evidence here.

Some people keep kits in their car in case they're stranded someplace. Let's just say I prepare for other contingencies as well. Some fortune was with me. It was late enough that no one was using the stair well. I was able to clean up the mess and pry wayward bullets out of concrete. A night spent searching the entire stairwell finally produced the missing three.

By morning, I was exhausted but fairly certain I had sanitized the location adequately. There were some new holes in the concrete that I couldn't do anything about--and that's bad enough--but it's not enough to link anything to me. I hope.

I've been up since then, trying to suss things out in my mind. I need some sleep.

I have no idea how to tackle something that can get into your head and can confuse your senses.

But it bleeds. And it know's fear.

[mrloucifer]

DO RIGHT MATE!! GIVE IT BOTH BLOODY BARRELS NEXT TIME EH?

[Grace]

A shotgun may be the way to go, at that.